Having lived in everything from the small town to the large city, urban and suburban, and even in both internationally…I have some definite opinions here. I don’t have time to touch on those at this point but will definitely soon. But I somehow came across this article, not even sure how now, but it’s from January and is called “Walkable/Drivable Errands”. Writer Megan McArdle writes about the difference between urban and suburban life with a bent on errand running and how kids can affect these situations. The most interesting part though is the myriad of comments left both in favor or and against urban life. What some people had to say in either direction were very interesting.

Personally, I don’t tend to pick my residence bases on how I’ll run my errands although I do like to make sure there is a grocery store nearby. My main concern would be quality of life in much broader terms than just how running errands will be handled. But perhaps this is a landscape architectural perspective. Or even a west coast perspective? Having never been to the east coast I suppose I can’t comment on that. I also came across an interesting blog post by someone who read this article and was actually commenting on what “typical” urban life “must” be like. Also extremely interesting.

Don’t people find walking enjoyable? I feel so disconnected when go for a long period of time without walking somewhere. It’s like someone took my window to the world away. I had some very interesting insights on that very topic while living in a small town in Germany. More on that topic later too.

So what’s wrong with society today? People don’t walk enough!